Mail-crane.



L. F. PAYNE. MAIL CRANE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 3. I916. 1,185,429. Patented May 30,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

L. F. PAYNE.

MAIL CRANE.

APPLICATION men MAR. 21. me.

1 ,1 85,429. Patented May 30, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEE11 2.

UNITED s 'r 'rns PATENT orrrcn.

LAURENCE r. PAYNE, or CHEROKEE, ALABAMA.

MAIL-CRANE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 3, 1916. Serial No. 81,902.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LAURENCE F. PAYNE, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Cherokee, in the county of Colbert and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail- Cranes; and I do hereby declare the following to. be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art' to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in a mail crane, and one of its objects is the provision of a device of this character, which shall be simple, durable and eiiicient and which may be manufactured and sold at a comparatively low A further object of a. device of the abovestated character, is the provision of a standard constructed of one continuous piece of metal, having its lower end slitted to provide a pair of side supporting legs and a rear bracing leg and its upper portion bent to form a substantially U-shape'd body, to receive a pair of mail bag supporting arms.

\Vith these and other objects in View as will become more apparent as the description proceeds, the invention consists in such novel features of construction and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

For a complete understanding of myin: vention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which 2- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my invention illustrating the supporting arms extending into a horizontal position supporting a mail bag, Fig. 2 is a side, sectional elevation, illustrating-the supporting arms in an inoperative position, Fig. 3 is a front elevation illustrating the connection between the supporting arms and the standard, Fig.

4 is a blank of the standard before being .bent to form the standard, Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional view, taken on the plane of the axis of the lower supporting arm. and

Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view of the spring 7 clamp for detachably securing the mail bag to the ends of the supporting arms.

Referring to the drawings in detail 1 designates the blank of a mail crane standard, having an upper and lower portion constructed of one piece of metal. The upper portion of the blank is bent on the dotted Patented May 30, 1916.

lines 2 and 3 to construct a U-shaped body portlon 4, and the lower portion of the.

blank is split or cut on the lines 5 and 6 providing a pair of side supporting legs 7 and 8 and a. rear supporting leg 9; said legs are bent on the dotted lines 10, 11 and 12 of the blank and extended in an outwardly and downwardly inclined plane after the upper portion has been bent to form the U shaped body portion 4, to support said body portion 4 vertically along the side of arail road track (not shown). The legs 7, 8 and 9 have their lower ends bent at right angles to provide supporting feet 13, 14 .and 15, wlth a plurality of slots therein to receive spikes or bolts 17 or other suitable securing means, to attach the feet 13, 14 and 15 to a base 18. The legs 7 and 8 are provided with a brace 19 secured thereto by means of bolts 20 and 21, and secured to the brace 19 is a second brace 22 which is secured to the rear leg 9 by means of a bolt 23, providing reinforcement to the legs 7, 8 and 9 intermediate their ends. A strip of metal is bent to form a plurality of steps 24 and is secured to the leg 7 at the upper end thereof by means of a bolt 25 and the foot 13 by means of one of the spikes or bolts 17, which further acts as a reinforcement to the leg 7, as well as providing efiicient steps to the device when muse. V

A supporting arm 26 is provided with an enlarged portion 27 adjacent a point intermediate its end and is provided with an opening therein to receive a bolt 28 to hingedly support the arm- 26 at the upper end of the U-shaped body 4. The enlarged portion 27 is provided with an off-set portion 29 to provide an extension 30 to counterbalance the arm 26 and to normally hold it in a vertical-position or an inoperative position. A second'arm 31 is provided with an enlarged portion 32 having an aperture therein to receive a bolt 33 to hingedly secure this arm to the lower end of the U- shaped body 4 and the arm 31, which normally maintains a downward position. The

arms 26 and 31 have their ends bifurcated to form a pair of spaced arms 34 to pivotally member 36 is off-set at 39 to receive the ring of a mail bag for detachably clamping the mail bag to the arms 26 and 31 when it is dethe operator will ascend the steps 24 and pull downwardly upon the arm 26 until it reaches the stop 40. The upper ring of the mail bag is then inserted between the members 35 and 36 carried by the arm 26; and the lower arm 31 is then swung to a horizontal position and the lower end of the mail bag is attached thereto by the same means as heretofore described with reference to the arm 26.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it

will be understood that minor changes in construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

What I claim is A mail crane comprising a U-shaped body portion, legs formed on said body portion, braces secured to said legs intermediate their ends, feet formed on said legs and adapted to be secured to a base, supporting arms pivoted to each end of said U-shaped body and adapted to normally maintain a vertical position, stops formed on said Ushaped body portion at a point adjacent the pivot point of said supporting arms to prevent said arms from passing a horizontal position and means for detachably securing a mail bag to the end of said arms.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LAURENCE F. PAYNE. Witnesses:

H. L. PAYNE, O. L. DUNN.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). 0. 

